Spirituality of St. Francis and St. Clare

Mother Earth

Carole, Paola, Lisa and Valerio Our family recently experienced an important time of challenge and discernment about Valerio’s professional life. It was a troubled time. A decision was made in mid-May: Valerio resigned from his job.

As of June 1 he is working as an artisan, using the manual skills and gifts the Lord gave him. He places his talents at the service of those who lack the opportunity, time, and desire to maintain their own homes. This decision was reached in the context of addressing our relationship with nature and the experience of understanding how nature is present in our lives and what its fruits and values are. It is a happy coincidence that in the month of June the Congregational Calendar invited us to reflect especially on our relationship with the Earth, which “. . . symbolizes the necessities and commitments of our lives.”

We began working on our vegetable garden four years ago. It is a hard terrain that we prepared at great cost, with little results from a soil that seemed dry and ungenerous. Over time we learned to understand the earth itself, the cycle of the seasons, plants and their need of soil, water, temperature, and the necessary type of care. The neighbor who has an extremely well cultivated area has never spared giving us his advice and his support. The first plants have grown, but it was really difficult to protect them and especially to obtain acceptable fruits. The situation has decidedly improved, bit by bit, with care and constant commitment.

After this first phase, we were left with the daily difficulty of being with nature. Getting a simple head of lettuce requires care and work. Overall, every time we eat we realize how much work this precious gift entails. In our time of sharing around the dinner table as a family, we have had the opportunity to confront ourselves with the gifts received, making a comparison with the fruits that the vegetable garden gives us and which we give to our neighbors and friends. From the actual earth, from the plants that grow, a parallelism emerges with the incessant gift of life itself.

How important it is to care for and appreciate what the Lord, through all of creation (of which we are part), offers directly to us or through the people who are close to us and the experiences we have. Caring for and preserving goodness every day, giving it time to grow, following its rhythm.... returning to a connection with making, producing, obtaining life from seeds or even working with wood (which comes directly from nature), gives us the possibility to experience a creation that is alive. This teaches us the value of what is tiring and difficult and helps us realize the respect that creation deserves. One feels the need to not waste or toss away, but rather to make this part of a virtuous cycle of nature, where everything is transformed into something else.

We need to remain vigilant to the signs because we have the duty to safeguard Mother Earth for our children and loved ones, through small gestures, which can slowly contribute to change the viewpoint of each of us, making us more responsible in caring more and more for the human family and for creation.